1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flip type portable telephone, and in particular, to a device for electrically connecting a microphone mounted on a flip cover to an audio circuit in a telephone body.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable telephones can be widely divided into a bar type and a flip type. The flip type portable telephone has advantages over the bar type portable telephone including superior voice quality. The superior voice quality is afforded by the closer proximity of the microphone on the flip to the user's mouth. The improvement is more pronounced when the size of the telephone is reduced and the microphone in a bar-type phone moves further from the user's voice. A flip cover further acts to protect the phone buttons and prevents unintentional depression of the buttons.
A flip type portable telephone typically includes a telephone body, a flip cover, and a hinge mechanism for mechanically connecting the flip cover to the telephone body. The flip type portable telephone can be placed in a communication standby mode when the flip cover is closed and in a communication mode when it is opened. A microphone of the portable telephone may be disposed at a bottom of the telephone body or at the flip cover.
Miniaturization of the portable telephone is limited due to the need to maintain a distance between the microphone and the earpiece to approximately an average distance between the ear and mouth of the user. That is, in the portable telephone, the distance between a mouthpiece where the microphone is mounted and an earpiece where a speaker is mounted, should be 14 cm or more. As the phone body reduces in length, the flip can be used to extend the length by mounting a microphone on the flip cover.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,897,873, issued to Beutler, et. al., proposes a foldable telephone having a flip element on which a ring element or a microphone is mounted by way of a multipurpose hinge apparatus. The flip cover of the telephone proposed by Beutler, et. al. is fixedly combined with the telephone body so that the flip cover is inseparable from the telephone body. If an excessive force is applied to the flip cover, the flip cover may be broken, rendering the telephone inoperable because the flip-mounted microphone is disconnected from the telephone.